Scabbard Samurai

Saya-zamurai

Synopsis

Kanjuro Nomi is an aging samurai who only has a scabbard. Deserting his lord to wander the land with his daughter Tae, Kanjuro is captured and sentenced to an unusual punishment: he has 30 days to bring a smile to the sad prince who has lost his mother—or else he must die.

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Simple, perfect, inspired vehicle for Matsumoto's blend of refined physical comedy/wacky absurdism/charming vulnerability/empathetic existential explorations. Full of hilarious riffs on Japanese cinema/theatre classics - all perfectly executed, with the genius comedic direction of the best silents, or classic Jim Abrahams. Every single cinematic element recruited to perfect the delivery... Kind of a gem, really. 4.5

SCABBARD SAMURAI is a very dear thing, possessing a kind of sweet-and-innocent-type vibe which appears to belong to bygone times. Indeed, Takaaki Nomi invokes Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd more than the screen comedians of today, and there is definitely something of a vaudeville-type commitment to glorious shtick going on here. What is perhaps most old-fashioned is the underlying well of sneaks-up-on-you pathos.

A charming homage to Takaaki Nomi and vaudevillian performers like him. Matsumoto cast Nomi without giving the actor a script. Nomi was not told this was a film or who was directing. Direction was given from afar and others were instructed not to interact with him off-camera to heighten tension. This is Nomi improvising raw, without knowing WTF is going on, a veteran comedian approaching an end he cannot foresee.

This goony opera buffa is an epic, comic take on the Scheherazade myth, packed with a roster of zanies orbiting a sad-sack everyman brilliantly played by the rubber-faced Nomi. Saya-Zamurai is both an increasingly elaborate series of pratfalls and a thinly veiled metaphor on the nature of artistic temperament, criticism and public popularity. You'll likely find the switcheroo ending pointed and anything but empty.

Amazingly warm, touching, and sad film, that truly gets to your heart. Even if the structure is repetitious for the most part, it manages to overcome that and get progressively tense towards the end. Truly unique mixture of silliness, comedy, sadness and despair, masterfully blended together. This film also portrays the ancient Japanese spirit and values. Great cinema.